Louis-Mathieu VERDILHAN (1875-1928) - Lot 20

Louis-Mathieu VERDILHAN (1875-1928) Marseille harbor, city hall side Oil on canvas. Signed lower right 75 x 100 cm (Moisture mark on back of canvas) The Verdilhan family was poor, so Louis-Mathieu was a house painter before becoming an artist. before becoming an artist. He learned to draw and, one thing leading to another, became a master. He rubbed shoulders with Marquet and admired Van Gogh, Monticelli and Derain. In 1902, at the age of 27, he lost his left eye while handling cobalt blue pigments. pigments. Despite this accident, Louis-Mathieu was committed to color, enthusiastic about Fauvism for Fauvism and its high tones. Verdilhan's breakthrough came in 1922, when he exhibited at the Galerie La Licorne in Paris. His reputation subsequently spread to the United States. Verdilhan is recognized as one of the most inspired representatives of the modern Provencal school. Verdilhan painted the port of Marseille a hundred and thirty times, his studio being very close to the Old Port. Our painting is one of his finest examples. Warm and cool colors in flat tints that balance each other (the red and acid green of the hulls, the Mediterranean blue of the water and the sunny orange of a sail), black rings that transform the variegated surfaces into a mosaic of mirrors, Verdilhan also knows how to sensitively combine formal construction with details that breathe life into the subject (flags flapping in the wind, swirling steam smoke, small passers-by strolling along the quays).